11th Holy Night: The Sphere of the Holy Spirit

4 January 2017 – Astro-Weather: Today at 11 am CST, Earth reaches perihelion – the closest point to the Sun during its year-long orbit, The two are then 91.4 million miles apart. It surprises many people to learn that Earth comes closest to the Sun in the dead of winter, but the cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year arises because the Sun lies low in the sky

In early evening at this time of year, the Great Square of Pegasus balances on one corner high in the west. The vast Andromeda-Pegasus constellation runs all the way from near the zenith (Andromeda’s foot) down through the Great Square (Pegasus’s body) to fairly low in the west (Pegasus’s nose).

The book of Titus is a Pastoral Epistle-letter from Paul to a church leader-written approximately 66 A.D. as a guide to Titus, a Greek believer, in his leadership of the churches on the island of Crete, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you” (1:5)

1504 – Deathday of Isabella I, Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, & unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms & those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella & Ferdinand are known for supporting & financing Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World & to the establishment of Spain as the first global power which dominated Europe & much of the world for more than a century

1785 – Birthday of Jacob Grimm, a German philologist, jurist, & mythologist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm’s law (linguistics), the co-author with his brother Wilhelm of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie &, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm & the editor of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

1786 – Deathday of Moses Mendelssohn, a German Jewish philosophe. His ideas from the ‘Haskalah’, formed the ‘Jewish enlightenment’ of the 18th & 19th centuries. Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt, & originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought & literature & from his writings on philosophy & religion came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time. He also established himself as an important figure in the Berlin textile industry, which was the foundation of his family’s wealth. Moses Mendelssohn’s descendants include the composers Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn & the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house

1849 –Deathday of Franz Xaver Gabelsberger a German inventor of a shorthand writing system, later known as Stenograph.

Congratulations Dear Holy Nights traveler – you have made it beyond the threshold – past the 9 Angelic realms, into the Sphere of the Holy Spirit!

It may seem odd at 1st that this Divine Realm is represented by what appears to be such an ‘earthly’ image – Taurus the Bull!? But we only need to contemplate the image of the sacred cow, with its potent digestive activity which is vast like the universe – & trace this imagination into the astral cosmos – which reveals its true form – as the dove! Rudolf Steiner encourages us to see that, what is astral in the Dove, becomes physical in the cow/bull.

Our ancestors of ancient India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece & Asia Minor, knew this, & made the cow sacred – revealing the significance of the cult of the bull or calf. The occult knowledge of this connection can be seen in Egypt for instance in depictions of the Sun-god Ra in the aspect of a falcon, bearing on its head a solar disc, sitting between the 2 horns of the heavenly cow; or in Babylon, with its images of the winded bulls (Shedu).

From Spiritual Science we know that the principle of the Holy Spirit works thru the sphere of the Moon, & the Son-principle works thru the sphere of the Sun. So the bull reflecting the activity of the Holy Spirit is connected to the Moon gods & goddeses – like the Sumerian Moon-god, pictured with the body of a bull.

In the Mysteries of ancient Egypt, the image of Isis arose out of the union in the lunar sphere of 2 cosmic streams coming from the heavenly regions of the Virgin (the constellation of Virgo) & the Bull (Taurus). When the influence of Virgo prevailed, then the image of Isis, usually seen holding her son Horus, out-pictured the energies of the Divine Sophia or World-Soul (Moon) a pre-figuring of The Virgin Mary. But if the Bull prevailed, Isis was depicted with the Sun disc between the bull’s horns, showing her connection with the World-Spirit (or Sun aspect). The relationship of Isis with Osiris, a pre-figuring of The Christ, further indicates the transition from the Lunar Logos to the Solar Logos, which corresponds to the shift from the 3rd to the 4th cultural epoch, when The Christ is born on earth.

(It’s important to note that on Old Moon the Luciferic principle chose not to evolve to the Sun-Sphere, but wanted egoistically to remain behind in the Moon Sphere, yet cut off from the true Holy Spirit. We see this debased, Luciferic representation of the Holy Spirit, which does not seek to find The Christ, in the Greco-Roman era as the cult of Mithras -the god whose task was to slay the bull of passions & egoism, & in the time of Moses, as the cult of the Golden Calf)

At the baptism in the Jordan, it is the Holy Spirit which enables the descent of Christ, to be ‘born’ into the Sun-Soul of Nathan, in the body of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, emanating from the region of the Bull, was seen by John the Baptist through the agency of his angel, in the form of a Dove above the head of Jesus. (John 1:32-34) Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

Picasso

There is another significant aspect which connects the influence from the region of the Bull, which rules the larynx, giving us the gift of speech, with the future working of the Holy Spirit. Speech connects us with others in a loving marriage of souls, & Rudolf Steiner takes this metaphor even further to say that the Larynx will one day not only speak forth words, but will become a creative organ, a higher version of the organs of reproduction! “…we must understand that the larynx in its full transformation, when man has become chaste again, will turn like a flower to the spiritual Sun. The calyx of the flower, when the larynx is pure, becomes a chaste chalice, ready to be fructified by the Spirit, to be offered to the ‘Holy Lance of Love’. This is a symbol of the Holy Grail, its highest Ideal” (GA 98 May 11, 1907)

May we begin this transformation of our speech NOW, in order to bring to birth the Spirit of Christ, as a moral creative force, within our human soul. This will fructify the soul of our communities (Think Whitsun), & pollinate the Soul of the Earth.

Barbara Holden

Freed thru the working of the Christ-Impluse in the soul of humanity, the Luciferic principle will turn from being adversarial, to becoming the servant of the redeemed Holy Spirit, The New Isis-Sophia.